Sheffield Council Zionism row between Greens and Labour set for confrontation at key meeting
Town hall meeting will be dominated by fallout from Labour-Green split
Sheffield Town Hall is set to witness some political fireworks today as the Zionism row between Labour and Greens plays out at the monthly full council meeting.
Labour leader Coun Fran Belbin has declared that trust has been broken between the two council groups over a vote at the Green Party conference to equate Zionism with racism.
The motion said Zionism was an ideology that supported an “ethnonationalist Jewish State in historic Palestine”. It also backed a “single democratic Palestinian state”.
Coun Belbin demanded that Sheffield Greens distance themselves from the conference vote, which they rejected.
Green leader Angela Argenzio said that criticism of a political ideology “is not, and cannot be allowed to become, hostility towards Jewish people”.
Labour is following the national party line for councils to withdraw from power-sharing arrangements with Green groups.
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Green supporters and Palestine solidarity groups will be protesting outside the Town Hall.
The two parties have been in a joint administration since the May elections. The council has been under no overall control since 2021 and previously key jobs had been taken by Labour, LibDems and Greens.
However, the LibDems decided in May to go into opposition. They oppose the loss of green belt land for development in the draft Sheffield Local Plan.
Labour have 26 councillors, followed by LibDems with 22 and 19 Greens on the 84-seat council. Other groups are Reform UK with 11, two each of the Sheffield Community Councillors Group and New Chartist Reform Group and two Independents.
Labour, backed by the LibDems, also aim to take committee chair roles from Green councillors. The party wants to take all chairing roles.
Green committee leaders include long-time housing policy committee chair Douglas Johnson, Maleiki Haybe on adult health and social care policy, group deputy leader Alexi Dimond on transport, regeneration and climate policy and Brian Holmshaw on communities, parks and leisure policy.
Deputy lord mayor Coun Peter Gilbert co-chairs the licensing committee and Coun Maroof Raouf is joint chair of planning and highways.
The campaign It’s Our Sheffield, which won a 2021 city referendum to halt centralised council political power, has condemned Labour for “attempting to resurrect top-down, executive thinking and gatekeeping through the back door”.